Pussy Riot’s Hip-Hop Won’t Stop

Posted on Oct 13, 2012

Days after an appeals court unexpectedly released her from the Russian authorities’ iron grip, Yekaterina Samutsevich has vowed to continue staging anonymous, anti-Putin protests with her feminist punk rock band Pussy Riot.

An unsanctioned performance inside Moscow’s main Russian Orthodox Church landed three of the bandmates in prison for “hooliganism” and religious hatred. Two members remain in jail and will serve out their two-year terms.

In her first interview following her release, Samutsevich spoke about realizing that people around the world were watching her and her bandmates’ trial. One of their lawyers showed them a picture of Madonna with words of support scrawled across her back.

Samutsevich was freed when her sentence was suspended, but she can be returned to prison for the slightest infraction.

The arrest of the three band members in early March was seen as a signal to other protesters. The Duma, Russia’s parliament, has since adopted a series of restrictive laws imposing fines on illegal protests and broadening a law on treason. “Putin is a person who doesn’t want to listen to the citizens of Russia,” Samutsevich said. “People complain and he ignores it all. Instead his government adopts awful laws – that’s his answer to citizens’ attempts to talk to him,” she said.

Samutsevich said she would continue taking part in Pussy Riot’s anonymous performances. She does not worry that she is now recognised, often by people on the street.